First time in St. Louis

St. Louis is amazing! Jerry drove me to the airport yesterday afternoon for my 3:12 flight from Detroit. I got there really early and had no problems getting through security or anything, so I walked around the airport a little bit to get in some activity (and work off my nerves). The flight was only a little over an hour, so I didn't want to take a Xanax and be super tired when I got to St. Louis; and I didn't want to spend my PointsPlus on wine before the flight, so I just decided to tough out my fear and fly completely sober.

I was in a window seat, which is what I prefer if I must fly, and once we got close to St. Louis, the ground actually looked pretty awesome with all the snow. We didn't have any snow when I left Detroit.

We arrived in St. Louis uneventfully, thank goodness. I was told to meet my driver at the baggage claim. I looked everywhere, but didn't see him. I noticed on Twitter that a few bloggers discovered each other at the airport, and that a couple of them were even on my flight from Detroit! I met up with them, and we waited for the rest of the bloggers and the driver.

I felt SO out of my element while chatting with the other bloggers, because they are all "professional" bloggers--as far as I know, my blog is the only very personal one. I have no idea why I was asked to go on this trip--the others have hundreds of thousands of followers! One girl even has a Facebook page for her cat, and her CAT has more Facebook fans than I do--BAHAHA. But everybody was super nice, and it was interesting to hear about the different blog niches that everyone comes from.

When we checked into the hotel, I went up to see my room. We were given a goodie bag from Purina ONE, so I dumped that out on the bed to see what was there. I scarfed down the banana immediately, because I was starving.

I looked out the window and was amazed at the view!

I had about an hour until I was supposed to meet everyone for dinner at the hotel, so I took full advantage of the small amount of time I had, and I walked to the arch. I tried to get a picture of me with the arch in the background, but it wasn't nearly as easy as it sounds ;)

I went for a quick walk around the park there, and then went back to the hotel to change clothes for dinner. Dinner was at Three Sixty, a bar at the top of the hotel. You could see a 360 view of the city from there, which was pretty awesome. Dinner was very light--lots of little finger foods. I took two very teeny slices of margherita pizza and two skewers of chicken in a spicy sauce. Everything else looked very caloric, so I decided to skip over it and get frozen yogurt afterward, hahaha. I also had two glasses of Merlot, and a couple of bites of a cheesecake dessert (not very good--the fro-yo sounded much better).

After chatting with the other bloggers for a while, one of the girls and I went to the lobby for the self-serve frozen yogurt shop. We don't have these anywhere near my house, and the only one I'd been in was in Chicago, so I was super excited for it. I definitely went overboard--three flavors of fro-yo (cake, wedding cake, and red velvet cake), and three toppings (cookie dough, crushed Butterfingers, and crushed Oreos). The fro-yo was only 2 PP per half-cup, and I probably had a cup and a half (6 PP). Then I estimated the toppings at 6 PP, so 12 PP for this big old mess was totally worth it...

I went back up to my room at around 11, and tried so hard to sleep, but was tossing and turning all night. I got up and starting typing this post at 5:00 AM, because that was an acceptable time to get up!

This morning, I'm going to the Purina ONE headquarters to learn about the "True Nature of Cats", and then I'm headed to the airport this afternoon. Such a quick trip!

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Noah's special day

Even though it was expected, I was still bummed to get on the scale this morning and see such a big gain...

I was 133.5, which means I am up 2 pounds from last week. This was expected for a few reasons: 1) I ate a huge amount of sodium yesterday (yesterday morning, my weight was 131.5), and a lot of excess sodium always causes me to retain water for a day or two; 2) I was totally out of the norm this week, between my RRCA weekend and Noah's "special day" on Monday; 3) I went over my PointsPlus this week, although it was only by five. I'm sure that this is just temporary water retention gain, but I still hate seeing it.

I'm happy with the choices I made over the weekend, considering the circumstances, and I wouldn't change anything there. On Monday, Noah stayed home from school for his special day, and we had lots of fun. Before we did anything, though, I ran 6 miles on the treadmill. I really needed to move my legs after sitting in class for 18 hours! Then, Noah decided he wanted us to go bowling...

I'm not a big fan of bowling (and I'm terrible at it), but it was fun to get to spend time with just Noah, doing something he really wanted to do. After that, he chose Red Robin for lunch. He wanted to go there because they have bottomless fries. I looked at all the healthier options I could have made, but I didn't want to eat a burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun, or get fruit in place of the fries that Red Robin is known for; so I just used a heck of a lot of weekly PointsPlus to order a regular burger and fries...

I had a natural burger--beef patty with lettuce, onions, and pickles--and fries, and the total was 26 PointsPlus. It was good! Noah, who was so excited about the bottomless fries, didn't even finish half the fries his burger came with ;)

On the way home, he asked if we could stop for dessert at the Dairy Queen. I said sure, and I knew I still had a lot of weekly PointsPlus left to cover it. I planned to get each of us a small blizzard, but Noah begged for a medium. Since it was "his" day, I said yes. I got a medium for myself as well, which I do regret--a small (or even a mini) would have been plenty after the big lunch I just had.

I took a couple of bites, and it honestly wasn't that good. The Reese's were mostly just the chocolate part (and you all know my favorite part is the peanut butter!). So I actually thought for a moment of just throwing it out and not wasting the PP. But I didn't want Noah to feel bad (he's super sensitive, like me), so I ate it. And ironically, Noah ate about 1/4 of his before he was done--he was too full. I think he learned a lesson about his eyes being bigger than his stomach ;)

I had used nearly all of my weekly PP, which was fine with me; I was specifically saving them for Noah's special day, knowing that we were going to lunch. Noah really enjoyed his day, and that was the most important thing to me.

Yesterday, I ran seven miles on the treadmill, knowing that in St. Louis, I wouldn't have time to run. My eating was fine all day, but my dinner had a ridiculous amount of sodium, which I think is the main cause of my weight jumping up. I made a pita pizza with mozzarella, feta, parmesan, and pepperoni. It was delicious!

I adore feta cheese, but every time I eat it, I retain water like crazy.

Today and tomorrow are going to be a bit of a challenge for me, also. I am flying to St. Louis this afternoon, along with some other bloggers, to go to the Purina ONE headquarters and learn some interesting stuff about cats (nerdy, but definitely up my alley!). We're having a meet and greet dinner tonight at a restaurant, and I'm not sure if we get to order off the menu or if they are ordering stuff for us, so I'll just have to be flexible.

Tomorrow, at the Purina ONE building, they are serving us breakfast, snacks, and lunch; and again, I don't know what the food will be. But I'm just going to make the best choices I can in the circumstances. I'm really excited about this trip! I'll be home tomorrow evening (I'll only be in St. Louis for about 24 hours, unfortunately). Then I should be able to get back to the norm!

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RRCA weekend

My weekend started way earlier than anyone should have to wake up--I set my alarm for 3:00 AM! I had a three hour commute to Dayton ahead of me, so I got up and showered and all that before heading out the door at 4:00. It was a straight shot down I-75, a super boring drive.

I'm glad I left early, because I passed the exit and had to make my way back to where I was supposed to go. Then I was looking everywhere for a McDonald's or someplace I could go to the bathroom. Anyway, I finally arrived at the Metropark (where my RRCA coach certification class was being held) with about 15 minutes to spare.

The only person in the class that I recognized while waiting for class to start was Matt from Runner Academy. I met him for lunch in Detroit in October with Rik, the day before the marathon; he had interviewed Rik and Ada about our Ragnar Relay team for his podcast. I said hello to him, before class started.

We were sitting at long tables in a U-shape.

We were given our course manuals, and the instructor got started. The first day, we talked mostly about the different types of runners and their needs, the physiology of running, and different running workouts and how they are important to a training program. I was surprised at how quickly the time passed.

They supplied breakfast, snacks, and lunch for us--I was amazed at the spread they had! Tons of freshly baked goods--ginormous muffins, bagels, scones, cookies, breads; fresh fruit--bananas, apples, and oranges; lunch was three types of homemade soup, salad, fresh bread with sandwich fillings; juice and soda, and even candy. My first thought was, "Ohmygoodness, I have to eat ALL OF THIS!" Hahaha, but I had brought some food with me to stay on track.

I did eat their lunch, because it was pretty healthy (and definitely very yummy):

Homemade chicken noodle soup, fresh bread, salad, and an apple. I was tempted to make a whole sandwich, because the bread was really good, but I didn't want to go overboard.

Class ran overtime on the Saturday, and we didn't finish up until 5:15. I drove to Carly's house, and I was really excited to see her. We didn't get to spend much time together in Florida, since she was in Van 2 and I was in Van 1 for the race; also, she left the morning after the race.

I met Carly's five-year old son, and he was absolutely adorable. Then the three of us went to Chipotle for dinner. Afterward, I may have suggested that we got to McDonald's for an ice cream cone ;)  Carly and I got to chat for a while before it was time for bed. I was super tired because of my early start to the day.

Sunday morning, I got up at 6:00 and got ready to head out the door at 7:15. Carly was still sleeping, so I snuck out quietly. The news kept talking of a huge snow storm that was supposed to hit Dayton that afternoon, and I was worried about my drive home.

I stopped for a decaf coffee before class, and picked up a Kashi bar for breakfast while I was at the gas station. The bar was actually really good.

Not really a breakfast of champions, but certainly healthier than the scone I'd been thinking about!

Day two's topics included the business side of coaching (marketing ourselves), sports psychology, injuries, and how to build running programs for individual needs. Normally, I'm super quiet and don't participate by raising my hand to volunteer info, but we did an interesting exercise in the morning when talking about marketing. First we had to list positive things about ourselves that would help us generate clientele; then we had to list positive things that others would say about us; and finally, we had this question:

That one was actually kind of fun to answer! Everyone else in the class seemed to have a hard time coming up with anything, but I just thought of some negative comments I'd gotten before, and wrote those down ;)

I am self-admittedly bossy and boring. I chose egotistical because of my being on national TV a couple of times, one might draw that conclusion about me; I chose snobby because a few of my friends told me that was the first impression they got of me--I'm super shy, and don't talk much, so they assumed I was snobby; and then "sell-out" because I kind of felt like a sell-out when I monetized my blog by putting advertisements on it. So anyway, I actually raised my hand and read my list out loud.

About halfway through the second day of class, one woman was talking about her experience of running while pregnant, when she stood up abruptly and started to walk out of the room, mid-sentence. Everyone was a little confused, and the instructor asked her if she was okay. She didn't respond, and she collapsed outside of the room. Randy (the instructor) yelled for someone to call 911, and about a dozen people were on the phones instantaneously.

I'm not sure exactly what happened to her, but I think she had some sort of anxiety attack. She said that it happened last week, and the first responders said she was okay. She went to the hospital, and I later learned that she was doing fine. But it was still scary to see that happen!

I had been craving a scone like crazy, so I decided to have one for lunch. I had a bowl of soup and instead of bread and/or salad with it, I just had half a chocolate chip scone and half a cranberry scone. GOOD CHOICE--both were amazing!

We spent quite a bit of time working on a detailed running plan for a fictional character who wanted to qualify for Boston. I think that was actually really helpful--we did this in groups of 5-6, and I liked hearing the ideas from the others in my group. After that exercise, I felt very confident in writing training plans, and I'm excited to write my own Chicago Marathon training plan.

The snow wasn't coming down at all when we got out of class, but I didn't waste any time getting on the road. I was excited to get home! I only stopped once, to get Subway for dinner. I was tempted to get ice cream or something too (being in the car by myself makes me crave junk food), but I wanted to save my PointsPlus for Noah's special day on Monday.

I'm very happy with how class went, and I will take my exam soon--so I'm not certified just yet. But it was a fun experience, I learned a LOT of great info, and met some really cool people. My instructor was hilarious, which kept class interesting. I'm glad I did it!

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Motivational Monday #8

My weekend absolutely flew by. I'm trying hard to catch up on everything before I leave for St. Louis on Wednesday! I learned a ton of new running info, as well as confirmed most of what I already knew about running, in my RRCA certification course. It was a great experience, and I'll be taking my certification exam soon. Let's hope I actually pass, because I will be horribly embarrassed if I don't. ;)

I'll write more about the weekend tomorrow, but for Motivational Monday, I will say that I am very proud of myself for keeping control of my eating this weekend. There was an insane amount of temptation, and I handled it well. :)  More about that tomorrow....

Judging from today's Motivational Monday Facebook post, it looks like you all had a great week!

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Ashlee ran her longest run ever--15 miles--AND it was her best pace ever! With a 9:55/mi average pace, she's totally ready to rock her next half-marathon.

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Nicole and her husband, Ben, ran their first 10K together on Saturday! They crushed their goals, and are looking forward to running the American Odyssey Relay next month (a relay that goes from Gettysburg to Washington D.C.).

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Staci ran her first 5K, the Color Me Rad. She was hoping to run the entire distance, and she did it! She's also lost nearly 10 pounds over the past month.

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Katelyn ran her farthest distance yet--9 miles!--despite it being windy and hilly. She wrote about the run on her blog, The Hungry Twenties. She even rewarded herself with something she had a craving for--a Cadbury Creme Egg! (I was very impressed when I read her post about the egg... she took it to the register, and the cashier told her they were buy one, get one free. I would have gotten two, and eaten two, but she gave the free one to the cashier to eat!)

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I had to laugh when I saw my sister's contribution to Motivational Monday, which definitely wins for most creative accomplishment... she said that she can now contract her glute muscle and actually see her butt cheek lift up. That's impressive! ;)  (Naturally, when I read that, I did what many of you will probably do--I pulled my pants down in front of the mirror and contracted my glutes, of course! And let the record show that I can, in fact, make my butt cheeks dance.)

To read some more accomplishments for this week, you can check out the Facebook post. Here is a snippet of that...

Finally, I wanted to share this--I saw it on Facebook today, which was perfect for Motivational Monday. When I was losing weight, and it got really hard to stay on track, I kept reminding myself that if it was easy, everybody would do it. I knew that when I did it, and reached goal, I could be damn proud of myself for doing something so hard that not many people could do!

(source)

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One last thing... I meant to post this yesterday, after Ellen's post about maintenance, and I completely forgot. SparkPeople has a team called "At Goal and Maintaining & Transition to Maintenance", which is perfect for anyone seeking help in maintenance. One of the leaders has compiled a TON of resources for people wanting more info about maintenance. I was seriously overwhelmed when I saw the list--it's amazing! I'm slowly making my way through it.

Anyway, here is a link for the list--feel free to share the link with anyone you wish. It's not an ad, nor does it benefit the Spark Team in any way--they just wanted to help get all the info out there so people reaching maintenance have some support! (There are also a few links on binge eating and food addiction).

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Great job this week, everyone! You continue to inspire me every day!

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A guest post on maintenance

I have a special guest post for you today! One of the first blogs that I started reading regularly was written by Ellen. Ellen has lost over 100 pounds, which is inspiring enough--but she's also kept that weight off for nearly eight years! (Ellen is also the reason I'm pretty broke right now--she's the one who introduced me to David's Tea!). Since I'm fairly new to being in full maintenance-mode, I asked Ellen if she could share some of her secrets. Eight years is a very long time to have kept off such a substantial amount of weight, and I would love to be able to reach that milestone one day.

When I read her post, I was pleased to see that I appear to be on the right track--I found myself agreeing with everything she's written (well, except for the yogurt--blech!). Her "before" diet was very similar to mine as well. Enjoy!

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Hi, everyone ~
When I was asked to guest post at Runs For Cookies about the topic of maintenance I eagerly agreed, not only because I adore Katie and would do just about anything for her, but also because I feel that the topic of maintenance sometimes gets lost within the plethora of information out there among the more popular topics of weight loss.   There’s a never-ending bounty of diet groups, forums, meetings, books and blogs to support anyone who wants to lose weight.  Unfortunately, information and support becomes scarce once one actually achieves her goal.

After working long and hard to reach my goal of a 100+ pound weight loss it was as though I’d been handed my Way To Go! You Did It! plaque and sent on my way with nothing more than a quick pat on the back. Suddenly the tools I’d used for years didn’t apply to me, which was kind of scary.  It’s a bit like devoting years of your life to becoming say, a nurse, but then once you graduate you’re expected to know how to perform brain surgery.

235 pounds--"I was unhappy with my life, and it showed
all over my face"

When I was at my heaviest, it wasn’t unusual for me to have a stack of heavily buttered chocolate chip pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast with coffee and lots of flavored cream and sugar.  For lunch I often ate pizza and drank a couple cans of Dr. Pepper while waiting for a cake or cookies to come out of the oven.  Dinnertime was my biggest meal of the day and my favorite dish was homemade fettuccine alfredo with garlic bread and more sugary soda.  And dessert?  Well, I never needed an excuse to have something sweet.

It wouldn’t be unusual for me to consume 3,000-5,000 calories a day.  I have always been an emotional eater and have been known to binge eat when severely depressed or anxious.  I gained the majority of my weight while attempting to deal with major life issues in my early twenties.The first step of learning how to keep the weight off, for me, was understanding why I relied so heavily on food and what triggered my reasons for overeating.

I made small changes at first.  I bought a pedometer and decided to focus solely on moving more.  I didn’t change my eating habits much in the beginning.  Eventually though, as I felt stronger and more confident about my progress I wanted to eat better, so I slowly began eliminating unhealthy foods from my diet.

130 pounds--This was taken right after
reaching goal weight.

These days you can usually find me eating oatmeal and Fage yogurt for breakfast.  Other foods that are always in my kitchen are: sliced turkey, Joseph’s lavash bread, raw spinach, fruit, spaghetti squash and Morningstar burgers.

Now that I’ve been maintaining for almost 8 years, I’ve come to rely on a few things that help me keep my weight under control:

1. Routine is my friend.
I know it sounds boring but in all honesty, it’s a lot easier to maintain a loss when there are no surprises. I really don’t like eating food I’m unfamiliar with. I’ve become pretty good at knowing the serving size of a piece of chicken by sight and I can rattle off how many calories are in a teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon of cream or a cup of flour like it’s some kind of bar trick.  When I’m faced with eating an unfamiliar food however, I can sometimes tend to underestimate the calories. If I do that too often, it’s a sure sign that I’ll start gaining weight.

2. Life doesn’t have to be about ‘all-or-nothing’.
When I was little, my favorite movie was Willie Wonka and the Choclate Factory.  Oh, how I envied those Oompa-Loompas.  They actually got to LIVE in the chocolate factory and I bet they had no idea how good they had it - edible wallpaper?  Lakes of chocolate?  Uh, can you say Heaven??  Even now, if I could get away with it I’d happily eat cheesecake for breakfast, Donuts for lunch and a tub of homemade ice cream and cookies for dinner.

Just because I can’t do that doesn’t mean that I can’t trick my sweet tooth into believing I’m indulging.  My secret weapon is dessert teas.  Whenever I feel the urge to overindulge, I steep a cup of Red Velvet Cake or Toasted Marshmallow tea from David’s Tea, which - and I am not kidding when I say this - has the most decadent teas on earth (I am not a sponsor nor have I ever been paid to endorse David’s Tea but if asked, I totally would – it’s that good).  If I feel like I’m on the verge of overeating, eight times out of ten, having a mug or two of my favorite tea with a bit of sweetener and unsweetened almond milk will sustain my sweet tooth.

I guess my point is this: it doesn’t have to be ‘all-or-nothing’.  If there’s a food that I can’t see to fit into my diet plan, I’ll experiment until I find something that won’t leave me feeling deprived – and if I can’t find a solid replacement? Then I’ll eat that piece of chocolate cake and not feel guilty about it, but I will try to make a point to eat it responsibly and mindfully.

3. I surround myself with people who support me.
Connecting with others who are walking a similar path has been invaluable.  We all do better when we know we’re not struggling alone. I feel terribly lucky in my life right now because for years I chipped away at my weight all alone, not realizing this community existed.  Here in maintenance is where I’ve found genuinely supportive people who truly want to help each other succeed and are open about struggles as well as successes. It’s the one connection that reminds us we’re all human and that we’re in this together regardless of where we are on our journey.

One final thought: you may have heard maintainers say that it’s harder to keep the weight off than it is to lose it.  I completely agree with that statement.   I used to be terrified that I was always one cookie away from gaining all 100+ pounds back.  These days however it’s all about teaching myself to SIT.  Stay In Today.  The past doesn’t matter; it’s the present that counts. Today is all I have, and I do what I can - here in the moment - to continue improving my life.  That’s all any of us can do, really.

Thanks a lot for reading, and a special thanks to Katie for being such an inspiration to us all.

Nearly eight years after reaching goal!

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I hope you enjoyed Ellen's post as much as I did! You can find Ellen on her Facebook page; on Pinterest; and her Etsy shop (she's a talented artist!).

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Success Story Saturday

This isn't going to be a weekly thing... but since I'm taking my RRCA certification class this weekend in Dayton, I've prepared a post for today and tomorrow...

I've always loved looking at before and after weight loss photos, and the photos were something that motivated me while I was losing weight. I took a comparison picture every 10 pounds I lost, so that I could actually see the difference.

When I started doing Motivational Mondays on my blog, I started getting a lot of before and after pictures in my e-mail. Since Motivational Mondays are about short term goals and achievements, I thought it would be fun to put all of these before and after photos on one post.

Ready to be super inspired?!

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Carrie
I started running in January 2012. I ran my first mile February 2012 and went all the way up to half marathon in October 2012. In the before picture I'm 243 pounds and the after 183 pounds. I've now lost 80 pounds and counting!

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Julie
Sixty pounds gone!

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Danielle
Danielle has lost 42 pounds (and counting) from doing Weight Watchers and Zumba! (Danielle's blog)

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Erin
Erin has lost almost 100 pounds!

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Stephanie
Stephanie has lost over 75 pounds!

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Marcia
Marcia lost 100 pounds, and even maintained her healthy habits through a pregnancy! (Marcia's Blog)

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Stacy
Stacy has lost 76 pounds!

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Tamara
Tamara has lost 88 pounds, and is more than halfway to her goal! (Tamara's blog)

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Dede
Dede has lost 55 pounds!

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Laura
Laura has lost 25 pounds!

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Julie
Julie has lost 70 pounds!

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Colleen
Colleen has lost a whopping 257 pounds!!! She just recently made Lifetime Membership at Weight Watchers. (Colleen's blog)

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Kate
Kate has lost over 80 pounds, and hopes to become pregnant soon (her reason for losing the weight)!

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Jamie
Jamie has lost 102 pounds by doing Weight Watchers!

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Elizabeth
Elizabeth went from a size 28 to a 12/14!! (Elizabeth's blog)

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Lisa
Lisa lost 75 pounds through healthy eating and exercise (she even started running)!

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Bonnie
Bonnie has lost 114 pounds! (Bonnie's SparkPage)

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Brittany
Brittany has lost 150 pounds!! (Brittany's SparkPage) 

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If these photos aren't inspirational, then I don't know what is! I may be doing more posts like this in the future, so if you have before and after pictures you'd like to share, feel free to e-mail them to me with the subject "BA Photos". Editing pictures takes a LOT of time, so from now on, I will only be posting ones that are already put together like these ones are (side by side in collage format). Thanks for understanding!

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Long run Friday

Today was my long run day! And I actually didn't wake up at 4:11 on the nose, like I usually do. Maybe because I wrote about it, I broke the cycle. But I was still up early, at 5:00. I just read in bed for a while before getting up.

I was sure I wanted to do the treadmill today, after last week's crappy run outside, getting chased by dogs. After the kids were on the bus, I set up the treadmill, put Sons of Anarchy on my computer, and started running. I wanted to hit a 8:44/mi pace average overall, because that's what I've done the previous few long runs, so I kept going back and fourth about every mile between 6.8 an 6.9 mph.

During the first mile, I started to feel that sharp cramp in my side again. I couldn't really figure out where it was coming from--it was just somewhere in my upper left quadrant. Today, I kind of thought it was coming from my back, and just radiating outward. I tried to run through it, because usually that works fine when I get a cramp, but this was different.

A mile and a half in, I stopped the treadmill and got off to stretch. I did some stretches for my back and abdomen, mostly, and after about two minutes of that, I got back on the treadmill. It was gone after that! I'm glad I stopped, otherwise it would have been a painful 12 miles.

I made it through two and a half episodes of Sons of Anarchy, and as soon as I hit 12 miles, I stopped the Garmin and just walked until that third episode was done.

I stretched some more when I got off the 'mill, hoping to prevent whatever cramp that was from forming again.

Oh, and for those of you that read yesterday's post and were asking how I increased my running speed recently, I did write a post about it. You can find it here. It's not a big secret--to run faster, I just run faster ;)

After showering, I sat in front of my laptop for a long time, preparing a few blog posts. Since I'm going to be gone tomorrow and Sunday, I have no idea if I'll have time to write (most likely not), so I have a couple posts ready to go live while I'm gone. Tomorrow, I'll be posting the before and after photos that people have e-mailed to me recently (a spin-off of Motivational Monday); and on Sunday, I have a guest post from a blogger-friend of mine that I'm sure you'll enjoy :)

I was actually so busy that I didn't eat lunch until 1:00, and I didn't even think about getting my cookie sandwich until this afternoon--crazy, I know! But I'd burned nearly 1,000 calories, so I sure as shit was going to get my cookie ;)

Jerry had to go weigh in at Weight Watchers. Did I mention that he joined? He was only about 10 pounds from goal when he joined--he's lost 80 pounds now! He has just one more pound to go until he reaches his WW goal. So we went to WW, and then to the mall to get my cookie.

I opted for the sugar cookie sandwich instead of the chocolate chip...

It was good, but I like the chocolate chip much better. After I picked mine out, Jerry got the chocolate chip one. As I was eating my cookie (I ate it while we were at the mall), I got irritated at Jerry for getting the same treat as me. I look forward to treating myself every Friday, and I ran 12 frickin' miles for that cookie! He doesn't exercise at all, and then ordered the same 23-PointsPlus thing as me. Childish of me? Probably.

We talked about going to a movie, but I just really wasn't in the mood to sit through a movie in the theater. I'm a little nervous about my class this weekend, and I just wouldn't be able to concentrate on a movie. So we just went home instead.

The boys are spending the night with my parents, so we were planning to have a date night tonight--it looks like we may just stay home. I have a VERY early day tomorrow... I am going to leave at 4:00 AM to go to Dayton. My class is at 8:00, and it's a 3 hour drive, but I want to leave early just in case there is traffic or an accident, or whatever on the way. So I'll be setting the alarm for 3:00 AM. Yikes!

I've been getting upwards of 40-50 spam comments on my blog PER DAY, and it's really a chore to keep deleting them (my spam filter only catches about half of them). Since I'm going to be in class all weekend, I won't be able to keep up with it. I'm going to turn the captcha code thing on for a few days (starting with this post). I despise those things, and I rarely comment on blogs that use them because I'm terrible at figuring out what the letters and numbers are, but I'll turn it off when I'm back home.

I'll probably post on Instagram and on Twitter while I'm gone, but I won't have another "real" post until next week. Wish me luck!

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New ActiveLink goal

I've been going to bed earlier and earlier each day, and it's getting a little ridiculous! Last night, I went to bed at 8:15 to read my book, but I was so tired that I only read a few pages before I just went to sleep. I've been waking up earlier and earlier, too, so it's not like I'm sleeping more. If the treadmill wouldn't wake the boys, I'd get my run done at 5:00 in the morning, but my kids sleep as lightly as I do.

While I was getting the kids ready for school this morning, I was surprised to hear a knock on the door. My dad, who usually comes over in the mornings to walk with the kids to the bus stop, told me that he wouldn't be here this morning. When I answered the door, I was excited to see that it was my brother Brian! He flew in from Minnesota late last night, and he was leaving at 10 this morning, so he wanted to walk the kids to the bus stop. They thought that was pretty cool ;)

Brian read my dilemma about my race shirt quilt on my blog (the dilemma being that I'm too scared to do the quilting), and it turns out that his girlfriend Becky's mom does quilting. She has a long-arm quilting machine, and she said she'd do the quilting part for me!

Brian said if I wanted, I could even fly out there to do it myself, but I am so broke right now that even with a buddy pass, I really can't afford to. Anyway, I have to buy the fabric to back the quilt and the batting for inside. Brian will be back in town in a couple of weeks, so he can bring it home with him then.

I chatted with Brian a little after the kids left, and then I ate breakfast and got dressed to run on the treadmill. I wasn't even tempted to run outside this morning, because the wind was SO COLD. Besides, I wanted to watch another Sons of Anarchy episode ;)

I was feeling a little cocky about my pace because of my awesome race on Sunday, and I set the treadmill at 7.5 mph (an 8:00/mi pace). Yeah, um, that only lasted about a half-mile, before I slowed it down to 7.2 (8:20/mi). I bumped it up again at the last half-mile, just to get it done. Then I stopped my Garmin and just walked for a half-mile or so.

When I uploaded my run, I saw a cool trend in my pace since October...

My average pace was 10:30/mi in October, and each month it got faster--for March, the average is 8:24! It's amazing how quickly I improved with some hard work on my part.

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When I plugged in my ActiveLink this morning, it told me that I've been averaging 143% of my activity goal. It suggested that I change my goal to earning 7 PointsPlus per day (as opposed to 6). That seemed like a lot! I have a really hard time getting in enough activity on the days that I don't run, and I usually fall short. This is what the week looked like as far as PP earned, and how close I was to my goal of 6 PP per day:

The shaded gray area at the bottom is my baseline, which is the activity that I have to do everyday, and I don't earn any PP for it. Once I meet the required amount of activity to reach my baseline, I start earning PP for all of my movement. The gray line marks my goal, which was 6 PP per day.

Wednesday and Saturday were my rest days, and the only way I got as much activity as I did was from walking. On Mondays, I do intervals, and that only works out to be two miles--so that day was rather low as well.

I went ahead and changed the goal. I'm hoping the weather is going to actually feel like spring soon, and I'll be much more motivated to go for walks outside. The past few days have been unbearably cold! It's actually snowing right now--totally disheartening for being the second day of spring.

Anyway, by changing my goal, it's going to increase up to my earning 9 PP per day in about 9 more weeks. That will be perfect to get me motivated to move a lot in the summer. Also, I'll be marathon training, so with the long runs each week, I'm sure I'll hit that target. I think I might pick a week in the summer to try and earn 100 PointsPlus in a week--that's a very lofty goal!

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I was recently interviewed by Jenn from Girl Heroes--while I have to disagree that I qualify as a "hero", here is the link to check out my interview :)

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Helpful husband

A couple of days ago, I spent a couple of hours going through the boys' closets and dressers, pulling out clothes that were too small, or stained, or torn. I threw away the stuff that was stained and torn, but we had a ton of items that were nice enough to donate, so I folded them all neatly and put them in a hamper next to the door. I meant to ask one of my friends if she wanted them, but I got busy and forgot.

This morning, when I was getting the kids ready for school, they were putting on clothes that were too small--stuff I knew that I put in the basket. I looked by the door, and the basket was gone. I asked Jerry if he knew what happened to it, and he said, "Yeah, I put them away."

He was trying to be nice and put away what he thought was clean laundry that I hadn't gotten around to! I tried not to get irritated, because he was just trying to help, but why would I take the time to nicely fold all those clothes only to let them sit in a basket?! I never do that with our laundry. So, this morning, I had to go through the closets and dressers (again) and pull out all the clothes that were too small (again). I did find the whole story kind of funny, though!

Last night, after the kids were in bed for about 15 minutes, Noah came out into the living room and told me that he changed his mind and he didn't want to do his special day tomorrow (today). I asked him why not, and he told me that he didn't want his teacher to be mad at him for skipping school.

Noah is definitely a worrier, and very sensitive, just like his mom ;)  I said, "Well, what if you wake up in the morning, and you're not feeling very well? I can't send you to school like that!" and he said, "No, that would by lying."  (Again, mother of the year, here).

I said, "Well, what if I make you an appointment for something? Like, I'll make an appointment for you to get your hair cut. Then you have a reason to stay home." But he didn't feel right about that either.

Finally, I just said, "What if I get permission from your teacher first?" and he liked that idea. He wanted me to e-mail her and ask her if he could miss school on Monday. I sent her a message, and she thought it was cute that Noah was so concerned about it. So we didn't do Noah's special day today; we'll do it on Monday instead.

Thanks for the tips about Red Robin, by the way! I had no idea you could substitute fruit for the fries, or lettuce for the buns on their burgers. I still don't think the food is worth the amount of PointsPlus I'd have to spend on it, but at least there are options.

Today was Wednesday Weigh-in:

I was 131.5, same as last week. Since I'm in maintenance, meaning trying to maintain, I'm happy with that! :)  This week is going to be a challenge--Saturday and Sunday, I'll be in Dayton to get my RRCA running coach certification. They will be providing breakfast, lunch, and snacks, but I have no idea what those will be. Then Monday, I'm going out for Noah's special day, most likely to Red Robin. It'll be tough, but hopefully I'll manage to get through the week without a (large) gain!

I've gotten quite a bit of walking in on the treadmill lately. I'm SO HOOKED on Sons of Anarchy, and I promised myself I wouldn't watch it unless it was while I was on the treadmill, so I've been walking a lot. I just started season three, and I can tell this season is going to be the best so far!

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Eli's special day

On Sunday night, Eli came into my room crying because he had a nightmare. When I gave him a hug, he felt like he was burning up, and sure enough, he had a fever. I kept him home from school yesterday, and he was complaining about his legs hurting--I prayed it wouldn't turn into his not being able to walk (again). It seems like every time he gets a virus, he can't walk. But luckily, after a day at home, he seemed much better.

Today was the day I had been planning for his "special day". I had told him that if he did all of the reading I'd asked him to do, that I would let him play hooky from school for one day, and I would take him out to lunch and do whatever else he wanted to do. Since he was sick yesterday, I thought today would still be a good day to go; he was feeling better, but I wasn't sure if he was good enough to go back to school just yet.

He decided that he wanted to go to Denny's for lunch, and then go to the movies. The only kids show I could find was Escape from Planet Earth, and it was about 40 minutes from here. So we headed out to get lunch first, and then go to the movies.

The snow was blowing around all over the place, and I was kind of scared driving on the expressway, because I couldn't see very far in front of me. The roads were dry, but the visibility was terrible. Halfway there, Eli said, "I want to see Jack the Giant Slayer!" I asked him what it was about, and he told me it was like Jack and the Beanstalk. I got off at the next exit, and pulled into a gas station to look up showtimes on my phone.

I ended up having to turn around, because it was at a different theater. But finally, we got to Denny's. I let Eli order anything he wanted, and he chose the same thing as last time--a t-bone steak with shrimp. I got an English muffin, egg whites, and fruit.

Eli's steak was SO disgusting; I'd ordered it medium well, but it was definitely rare, and there was a ton of connective tissue and fat. I didn't even complain, but when the server saw it after I cut into it, she said it looked terrible, and she ended up asking the manager to take if off the bill. I took a picture, but decided not to post it because it's gross ;)

I didn't realize just how bad it was until after he'd eaten the edible parts. I just hope he doesn't get sick from it! I'm not going to let him order steak there again. You don't go to Denny's for a steak! haha

After we ate, we went to the mall for the movie. Eli wanted to get a cookie from Mrs. Fields (torture, anyone?). I said we could share one, and he chose the Peanut Butter Dream Bar. We cut it in half, so I ended up eating a tiny square for 10 PointsPlus, but it was good! Then we went into the movie.

I wish I'd researched the movie before taking Eli to see it, but I just assumed it was a kids' movie based on what he said. It was scary, and after I saw Eli put his hands over his eyes about 35 or 40 minutes in, I asked him if he thought we should leave. He said yes, so we left. On the way out, I stopped at the ticket sales counter, and said, "I totally understand if there is nothing you can do, because it's my fault for not realizing this was a PG-13 movie, but it's too scary for him, so we're not going to stay. Any chance we could get a refund?"

I expected him to say no, that I was a moron for bringing a 7-year old to the scary movie when he should be school (parent of the year, for sure), but he was very kind and refunded out tickets. I felt bad that Eli's day was turning out to be not-so-special, so I asked what else he'd like to do. He wanted to go buy a toy, and since his lunch and our tickets were refunded, I agreed.

Eli ended up being really happy with how his day went, though, and I am glad. I think he just liked getting to play hooky from school and hang out together, just the two of us. I enjoyed it, too--it's rare that I spend quality time with just one of the boys! Tomorrow is Noah's turn, and thankfully he doesn't want to go to Denny's. He wants to go to Red Robin, though, which has NOTHING healthy on their entire menu. If I'm going to spend 30 PointsPlus on a meal, it's not going to be on a burger and fries! Maybe I'll talk him into some other restaurant.

I hate getting out of my routine, like I did today--eating lunch out and then being out all afternoon made it hard for me to eat well. Not to mention impulsively blowing 10 PP on a brownie at the mall! Being the day before my weigh-in, I'd pretty much bet that my weight will be up tomorrow; not because of overeating, but usually when I get out of my routine that happens for a day or two.

This is a long post with almost no pictures, so here are a few cute ones of Phoebe:

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